ABSTRACT
As the world’s second largest importer of crude oil, China imported 234.6 million tonnes of crude oil in 2010. Meanwhile, about 90% of imported oil is transported by tankers (Liu 2009). Along with development of the marine petroleum industry and marine transportation, vessel-source oil pollution has become a grave threat to marine environment in China (Zou 1999). Compensation for vessel-source oil pollution plays an essential role in protecting the interests of victims and in prevention of oil pollution. Since the early 1980s, China has acceded to some relevant international conventions and also enacted a number of domestic legislations to improve its compensation standards. This paper will explore how China is now implementing the international standards for vessel-source oil pollution compensation from the perspective of application of the laws. More importantly, several potential problems that are revealed on the way of improving the compensation standards will be discussed.
